- Part 2

Tutankhamun’s mummy is being safely kept in KV62 in the Valley of the Kings. It’s hard to imagine his body would ever leave Egypt, yet thousands of visitors to the touring King Tut exhibition at New York are being offered the chance to see an exact replica of the boy-king’s mummy based…

Nearly 4,600 years ago a third dynasty pharaoh named Snefru launched one of the greatest construction projects in human history. He decided, for reasons that are unknown to us, to build four pyramids scattered at different places across Egypt. He constructed two of them at Dashur (the Red and Bent pyramids), one…

One of the most perplexing mysteries that Egyptologists and Aegean experts are tackling is that of the frescoes of Tell el-Dab’a, also known as Avaris.This site was used as the capital of the Hyksos, at a time when they ruled much of Egypt, from 1640 – 1530 BC. It is on…

Throughout their history the ancient Egyptians recorded making voyages to a place called the ‘Land of Punt’. To the Egyptians it was a far-off source of exotic animals and valuable goods. From there they brought back perfumes, panther skins, electrum, and, yes, live baboons to keep as pets. The voyages started…

A new translation of a Roman victory stele, erected in April 29 BC, shows Octavian Augustus’s name inscribed in a cartouche (an oblong enclosure that surrounds a pharaoh’s name) – an honour normally reserved for an Egyptian pharaoh. Octavian’s forces defeated Cleopatra and Mark Antony at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. His forces…

Czech archaeologists have excavated remains of a prehistoric settlement in Arbil, north Iraq, which could date back as far back 200,000 years, placing it among the earliest evidence of hominid activity in the region. The expedition, led by Dr. Karel Novacek from the University of West Bohemia in Plzen, unearthed clusters of…

A French archaeological team digging at Saqqara has discovered the burial chamber of 6th Dynasty Queen Behenu, wife of either Pepi I or Pepi II. The burial chamber was revealed while the team was cleaning the sand from Behenu’s pyramid in the area of el-Shawaf in South Saqqara, west of the pyramid of…

Why Super-Cements May Hold Secrets of the Pyramid Builders Cement is quite literally the foundation on which modern civilization is built. It’s mankind’s most common building material, and has been a key component in most of the world’s construction projects for over a century. Its origins are certainly ancient, and…

Thomas Schneider is exploring a subject that has never been studied before. The University of British Columbia professor is examining the history of German Egyptology during the Nazi era. The period that lasted from when Hitler became chancellor of Germany in 1933 – until he committed suicide in his bunker in 1945.The research is…

The treasures of King Tut are currently making their rounds of the US and Canada in one of the most eagerly-anticipated tours in recent years. In an exclusive interview for Heritage Key, I caught up with Dr Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt, after his lecture in Indianapolis on…